Lenzburg, 25 August 2008 - Hero has announced that it has acquired Houston Harvest, the US leading player in seasonal popcorn products.
Houston Harvest has a dominant market share in its markets and generates annual revenues of over $40 million. This acquisition will be integrated in Hero's Signature Brands operations in Ocala Florida and represents an excellent complement to Signature Brands' existing seasonal businesses, PAAS (Easter) and Pumpkin Masters (Halloween).
Stefan F. Heidenreich, Hero CEO commented: "This new business represents an excellent complement to Signature Brands' existing high-margin seasonal businesses - we will now have a market-leading franchise for Easter, Halloween and, with this transaction, Christmas. The business has previously been under private-equity ownership and we believe that by leveraging our ever stronger retail presence in the US and the depth of our product innovation capabilities, we can significantly grow this business both top line and bottom line in the coming years.”